Heavy duty mats fabricated from reclaimed automobile tire sections and steel ropes have been used for many years to cover rock blasting sites during the blasting process in order to reduce the risk of flying debris and the like. Such mats are very heavy and can be in sizes up to about 15 feet wide and 18 feet long. The larger sizes include many rows of old tire segments and the closer the segments are packed onto the steel rope the more effective the blasting mat will be. Traditionally such mats have been assembled manually. This is not only labour intensive, and hence expensive, but it is also extremely heavy and dirty work. Productivity per man is relatively low, and labour turnover is high.
There is a need, therefore, for a machine which will automatically build up the tire segments on the steel cables and compress the assembled sections to form the heavy blasting mat. Heretofore no such machine appears to have been developed.